Two games announced for March which will allow Stielike to do some more tactical tinkering before the World Cup qualifers start in earnest in June. Both I think are home matches, they're playing Uzbekistan on March 27th and New Zealand on March 31st.

Coach Anthony Hudson named an All Whites side infused with fresh talent as the squad to face Korea Republic in Seoul on March 31 wasannounced on Friday.

As he continues to build the foundations for the team's campaign to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Hudson's squad reflects hisdesire to assess the country's up-and-coming talent - some of whom could play a key role as the team move towards Russia.

A total of eight new faces have been named with four of the new players based offshore. Defender Themistoklis Tzimopoulos (29) joinsthe squad from the Greek Super League club PAS Giannina while midfielder Benjamin van den Broek (27) - playing in Romanian Liga 1with Universitatea Cluj - is also named.

New Zealand age-group representative goalkeepers Max Crocombe (Oxford United - League 2, UK) and Stefan Marinovic (SpVggUnterhaching - German Division 3) have also been included.

Crocombe was part of the New Zealand U20 side at the 2013 World Cup tournament in Turkey - a team which also included Storm Roux,Bill Tuiloma and Tyler Boyd - while Marinovic, along with Marco Rojas, was a member of the 2011 Men's -20 side which contested theWorld Cup tournament in Colombia.

Jake Gleeson, who played in goal on the previous tour to China and Thailand, was unavailable for selection through injury.

Hudson says the inclusion of Tzimopoulos and van den Broek has come directly from the worldwide search for players eligible to playfor the New Zealand side.

"We've had many names come to us and just a few of those list of names we felt could come in and add quality and depth to squad, andthose are two we've selected," Hudson said. "Themi actually came from someone who reached out to us from down in Wellington. That'swhere his family is from. Benjamin was applying for citizenship and Ryan Thomas told us about him and helped him through theprocess. Since those names were given to us, we've been following their games, watching previous games and we've recently made thedecision that now is the time to bring them in."

Meanwhile, four New Zealand-based players have been included in the side to make their first All Whites trip.

Auckland City FC pair Sam Burfoot (20) and Ryan De Vries (23) will be in line for their first senior international caps while Men'sU-20 and Wanderers SC squad members Sam Brotherton and Clayton Lewis are also named.

Hudson says the likes of Brotherton (18) and Lewis (18) have earned their chance through performances in squads that form part ofNew Zealand Football's aligned pathway to the elite level. "The ones we've selected I've been seeing them week in and week out,training in front of us and playing and they deserve the chance in our environment. These players have been identified for certainreasons; not just down to ability and performances but also in terms of strength of character. This is now the process ofidentifying - between now and the end of the Olympic campaign - exactly who the young players are that we want to bring with us andhave them with us for our campaign and really invest our time into developing and throwing all our energy into."

Hudson says after the time spent building the foundation for the future of the All Whites programme, the goals for the March windowagainst the 54th-ranked nation are very clear. The objective is that this trip has to be the best so far. We want to see aprogression in the style of play. There will be enough players in the starting 11 that will have been with us in the last couple oftrips who will help bring that style of play along. The new players coming in we hope to see them understanding it and playing apart in it. We want to test ourselves against one of the best teams in Asia with some top quality players. I think it will be anincredible experience, especially for some of the young lads who in two or three years time will be called upon to play in thesetypes of environments and against these types of players."

Elsewhere, some bad news for New Zealand before the 31 March friendly in Seoul:

All Whites captain Winston Reid has been ruled out of next week's international clash with Korea Republic in Seoul. The West HamUnited defender was given as long as possible to prove he had recovered from a hamstring injury which had kept the 18-capinternational out of action for his club for several weeks. But All Whites coach Anthony Hudson confirmed on Friday Reid wouldn't bemaking the trip.

"We gave Winston until the very last moment to see if he would be able to be part of the camp here in Seoul," Hudson said. "It's ashame his injury hasn't fully healed and he won't be part of this trip. West Ham have been very co-operative and we had the chanceto bring Winston out here to be part of the camp off the field, which we decided against. We will now move forward in our planningand it opens up an opportunity for another member of the squad to stake their claim."

eujin wrote:I'm just wondering who "Wanderers SC" are. Wikipedia describes them variously as New Zealand U-20s and New Zealand U-17s. What's the story?

And are Wellington Phoenix also fielding a team in the ASB nowadays? Are they the same players as play in the A-League or not?

New Zealand U-20s playing in the ASB (NZ top division). New Zealand is hosting the World Cup in this age group this year and wanted to give those players as much prep as possible. They were obviously younger last year but not accurate to call them U17s. Wellington Phoenix (of the A-League) also have a reserve team in the ASB.The ASB is not unique in doing something like this. A number of other, smaller nations have their u20 teams in their domestic top division.